Albizia julibrissin ‘Summer Chocolate’
Chocolate silk tree
FABACEAE, The Pea family
Everything is chocolate these days. I don’t know if it’s an effort to market towards women, or to appeal to the senses, but if a plant is brown, purple, burgundy or bronze or smells remotely like chocolate, then it will be branded as the most sexy and delicious thing. There have been several articles about chocolate gardens, with lists of things people can collect: Chocolate cosmos (really does smell like chocolate, if you get down and sniff,) ‘Chocolate chip’ Ajuga, chocolate mint, etc.
The ‘Summer Chocolate’ silk tree really is a beauty though. I saw it at Cistus and in a yard that I’ve been told belongs to Portland Landscape Architect Michael Schultz’s. It is deciduous and presumably almost as crazy in growth rate and habit and messiness as the regular silk tree. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with ‘messy’ trees, or people for that matter. You just have to think ahead and put them somewhere where the debris won’t cause a big headache.
The chocolate silk tree is a fairly recent introduction, so there aren’t a lot of mature examples around. But it seems to be hardy to zone 7. It can grow in sun to light shade, with richer brown leaves with more sun. The branches are spreading and the overall shape is flat-topped (to 20 feet), like the kind of tree a giraffe would like to eat. It was discovered in Japan in 1990.
